On Ambition's Dawn

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

“He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm; he who stretches his legs does not walk easily.”

“Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.”

“He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase.”

“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition: by that sin fell the angels.”

“He who is greedy of credit and reputation after his death does not consider that they themselves by whom he is remembered shall soon after every one of them be dead.”

“Ask what the fruits of silence are, and the answer is self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character.”

Among the regrets voiced most often at the end of a life, this one came from nearly every man: I wish I had not worked so hard.

A clear sense of why you get up in the morning is associated with as much as seven additional years of life.

In Okinawa, retirement is a foreign idea. The longest-lived people on earth keep doing daily work of some kind, in a garden or a workshop, into very great age.